Super

34 - She Loved Me?

"'Who are you?' he asked.

'I am the future queen of this world, at the very least. You may refer to me as Mistress Koboi for the next five minutes. After that you may refer to me as Aaaaarrrrgh, hold your throat, die screaming, and so on.'"

– Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox

Gold's P.O.V.

"Does anyone else feel that?"

"I don't feel anything, I'm going back to sleep."

"B.S. dude, we're heroes, we don't get sleep.... Hello?"

"Guys I'm sure it's nothing, go back to sleep."

"What about you Gold? Hey bud, you there?"

I blinked up at the ceiling. I wanted to help, really I did, but I just... needed... sleep. Ever since the press conference last week, I'd been swept up in a whirlwind of public appearances, interviews, and saving even more supers who continued to flake out on us. My head swam from the chaos of everything: in the past two years I had gone from a nobody to the city's favourite teenager and now the target of all the blame. 

Where Annie spent the last week relaxing from the stress of the Invisible Hand's betrayal, I spent the last week desperately trying to persuade everyone that there had been no way to know of IH's true nature; that he genuinely seemed good! Some small part of me felt resentment churning inside about Annie's worries. All she had to stress about was heartbreak. I was facing possible prosecution for obstruction of justice! To think, a month ago people loved me and now, they called me a vigilante. Their spiteful comments about us supers taking the law into our own hands stung more than any rejection.

But now all I felt was guilt bubbling up the back of my throat. I knew how much a broken heart hurt. I couldn't blame Annie for feeling weak from it. After all, it wasn't a simple rejection... The guy who she was crazy about – the one who had broken his wrist just to make her laugh and taken her to Iceland to see the Northern lights – had tried to kill her.

That had to be worse than facing charges for my own obliviousness. 

Right?

Four hours ago, I'd fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, my whole body throbbing from exhaustion. It was the most sleep I'd gotten at any one time all week, but of course, it was short-lived. 

"Gold? You awake?"

I let out a dramatic sigh. "Who could get any sleep with you in my ear all night, Bat Boy?" I asked, my tone clipped.

"Eyy, there's my favourite sleep-deprived superhero."

"Thanks," I muttered, rolling out of bed and trading sweatpants for spandex. I glanced down distastefully at the tight gold fabric, snapping it against my thigh before crossing to the window. I shared a small studio apartment with my older sister who was conveniently never home, always out with her dead beat of a boyfriend, so it made hiding my double life much easier. She still paid the rent and that's all that mattered.

Heaving open the window was a feat. Even with my super strength, nothing can beat New York City windows. Eventually though, I got it open, letting in a cool blast of air. Rubbing my stomach a little, I zeroed in on the source of the anxiety. It was a bar in Queens: not the best part of the city, I'll admit, but in my domain nonetheless. Letting out an exhausted sigh, I rubbed my eyes, and took off into the night.

***

I arrived at the bar a few minutes later with Annie and Lila squabbling in my ear. 

"Lila's being dramatic again. She says Finn has "absinthe" eyes. Only she would turn liquor into a description of eye colour and make it sound romantic."